UFC legend who rivaled Jon Jones slams him over Aspinall controversy

Former UFC double-champion and major Jon Jones rival, Daniel Cormier, has called Jones' refusal to fight Tom Aspinall into question.

Jones and Cormier had one of, if not the ugliest feuds in the UFC, with death threats and fights at the face-offs included. It concluded with two Jones victories, one overturned after an anti-doping violation.

Still, Cormier maintains that if he was the heavyweight champion currently, he wouldn't be following in Jones' footsteps...

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Jon Jones fighting Daniel Cormie — Gary A. Vasquez-Imagn Images

Daniel Cormier says he would have '1000-percent' fought Tom Aspinall

Fast forward eight years from their rivalry, Jones is the heavyweight champion, and fans are slamming his avoidance of the interim champion Tom Aspinall.

'Bones' maintains one title defense in over 800 days, and Aspinall has been waiting for his opportunity for well over 500 days, defending it in the process.

Taking to YouTube, Cormier believes he'd have done a better job of being the heavyweight champion if he were in Jones' position right now.

"You're talking about me, you're talking about Francis [Ngannou], you're talking about Chael [Sonnen] and almost ignoring the right thing," Cormier declared.

". . . I can tell you guys on good authority, if I was still fighting today and I was still the heavyweight champion, and Tom Aspinall was the No. 1 contender, I would've already fought him. One thousand percent. . . . I mean this dude, Jon Jones... still talking? Come on."

There's no doubting Cormier, who dared to be great on many occasions in his fighting career.

'DC' won the Strikeforce heavyweight tournament opposite Josh Barnett, and fought names like Frank Mir, Roy Nelson, Dan Henderson, Jones (x2), Anthony Johnson (x2), Alexander Gustafsson, Anderson Silva, Volkan Oezdemir, Stipe Miocic (x3), and Derrick Lewis.

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